Erin

We live in a classic suburban area bordered by industrial area followed by farmland. There is a pair of crows that seem to call our neighbourhood home, as well as a group of three farther down by a small plaza. I sometimes will spot five flying and I imagine it is the two groups hanging out together. We see the pair basically every day and sometimes some random others. They come to the yard, fly overhead and perch in the trees in the neighbourhood. They definitely eat roadkill and take peanuts from the feeders. I do put out meat cuttings for them, scraps from chicken and beef, which they love. There is a small pond not too far, so maybe they drink there? We have a birdbath, but I have never seen them in it, though it is well used by the other birds. The pair I am most familiar with nest right in the neighbourhood. Only twice have I been able to figure out where, both times just because I'm outside a lot with my dogs and I pay attention to where they are flying. Once it was in a tall pine in someone's backyard, they successfully fledged 3 chicks that year, and this year I was very excited to track their nest (just visually!) to another back yard tree, a very large maple, just down the street from me. Unfortunately it was hit by a grey squirrel, (an incredibly chaotic scene early one morning) but they fledged one baby successfully. By and large they do not interact with people and avoid them. They don't seem afraid, but if you get too close, they'll take off, which is probably smart. I honestly don't think anyone but me even notices them, they are just part of the landscape, though extremely unpopular with farmers. I just love them, to watch them, hear them and try to figure out what they're doing and their relationships with each other. When they brought their 3 babies to the backyard one morning during covid, I honestly got tears in my eyes, it felt like such an honour. This course has been great, I've enjoyed it very much.

I've had a pair coming to the yard for about two years now, once in a while there are three of them up to a high of nine for a few weeks last fall! I wish so much that I knew who they were to each other, though I imagine they are a family group. There has been a lot of very interesting behaviour from them, one usually stands sentry while the other ones eat, and they almost always leave something for the sentry crow to take at the end, which is cool. Last spring they vanished for April and May, I assume for nesting purposes. They returned in June with three babies, which were as big as the adults, but obviously babies from their behaviour. The babies were MUCH braver than my pair, venturing much further into the yard, spending much more time on the ground and hopping around and on everything. I guess since no harm came to them, they are all much braver now and spent a lot more time here. They even will wait in the tree if I'm going out to the feeders instead of flying away. This spring I still see at least one every day, and have seen three here and there, so I'm not sure what that means for nesting. The one in particular is much more comfortable around me. This spring too I have noticed more quarrelling among them, I assume this 'third' crow is the issue. It never seems serious, thankfully, but loud and with some chasing. I'm very interested in see if some babies will make an appearance. The crows are much louder than the other birds, and much more likely to stick around when I'm outside, they also are not at all bothered by our (senior) dog, unlike the other birds, and will still come to eat if he's out in the yard. I absolutely think they know that he is no threat to them. I have a bird bath that I deep clean weekly and change the water in daily in the summer to prevent mosquitoes. I also have started planting flowers that are supposed to deter mosquitoes, I don't know how true that is, but it can't hurt - marigolds, citronella mostly.

I was happy to learn the purpose of the wing tags, they seem so large, though clearly the crows are not bothered by them. There are 2 - 9 crows in my neighbourhood that I see daily and come to my feeders, oh my goodness I would love to know who is who! I think I can tell about two fairly confidently based on behaviour, but there is no way to know. I was also happy to learn how long they live. I had heard they could live a very long time in captivity, but I did not know they also have long lives in the wild. What a wonderful thing to study, they are really wonderful and amazing birds.

1. I would point out that although crows will snag nestlings if they can, nestlings have a lot of predators and the most likely culprit is squirrels. I bet a lot of people would not know that, I certainly didn't know that. 2. I live in southern Ontario, Canada, and I pretty much see crows everywhere. The two crows I am most familiar with that come to my feeders nest in our suburban neighbourhood, I think I even know the backyard, but I can't ever pin point the nest. I'll have to go have another look this year. It has several tall trees in it, I suspect it's in the pine tree. 3. In southern Ontario there are only crows, however, my parents live in northern Ontario where ravens rule and you see them all over the place. Granted, I don't live where you would see them together, but ravens are so much bigger than crows, every time I go up north it strikes me how amazingly big ravens are, and those crazy deep, croaking voices they have, they seem so different - but again, I never see them together :) The biggest difference I notice is exactly on their range map - the farther away from people you go, the more ravens you seem to see. There are ravens in town, but they are so noisy if you head out to the lakes and forest, there must be hundreds of them, it's very cool. 4. I think the other song birds that visit our feeders really benefit from having the crows around - they chase off the red tail and the sharp shinned hawk regularly, and the sharp shinned hawk has killed at our feeders, so I'm glad the crows are there to run them off, though I do realize the hawks need to eat too, it's pretty gnarly to witness. In spite of their bad reputation, I have never had problems with the crows at the feeders, it's the grackles that seem to cause all the difficulties, and bully and kill the other birds. No one is sad when the grackle parade leaves for the winter.